Skype Can Now Be Snapped on Xbox One

One of the weird limitations of the initial shipping version of Xbox One was that it was not possible to snap Skype next to another app and do something like chat with a friend while you played a game together. This week, however, Microsoft announced that this limitation has been fixed, and you can now use Skype with snap on Xbox One.

Here's what it looks like in case that's not clear:

The way snap works on Xbox One is that only certain snap-compliant apps can be snapped, so when you enable this feature, you have a subset of apps to choose from. You can't play two big games side-by-side, for example, and that makes plenty of sense. But it always seemed like Skype should be possible. And now it is.

(You could of course previously use Skype as the main app and snap a second app next to that.)

With this new update to Skype for Xbox One, now you can, as Microsoft puts it, "see your best friend’s face as you narrowly beat them in Forza Motorsport 5 ... or watch your mom's favorite movie while on a video call with her, the next best thing to being there."

You can also make a group call: just add extra participants and everyone can join a group audio call to watch a movie, TV show or live sports together.

Microsoft also notes that in addition to adding snap support, the new Skype update also improves the app start-up time and adds a few other bug fixes.

Discuss this Article 1

Finally. That was always the weirdest thing - if there was ever an app meant to be snapped it was Skype.

I'm glad they've been slowly improving it in other ways as well because with the Kinect and the included headset it's actually not a half-bad video Skype platform. The Kinect camera is decent and does a good job of "zooming" on whoever is speaking, and the included headset, while mediocre for gaming chat, is perfectly fine for Skyping and you don't look like an idiot wearing it (as opposed to wearing a giant gaming headset).

I actually use it quite a bit even for business calls because I like having the camera farther away and on top of my TV - it makes me look like I'm actually talking to the other person instead of, say, squinting down at a laptop camera.